Rachin special in Garden City once again

INDIA had a small window of opportunity in the morning session. To their credit, they had a chance to squeeze through that window after a really good hour's work where they had broken the spine of the visitors' batting unit.

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell and Glenn Philips had all disappeared back into the shed. Ravindra Jadeja had got into his stride while Kuldeep Yadav was proving to be a difficult customer.

The Black Caps were already leading by 175 but it was the sort of lead that doesn't demoralise opposition. It gives batters hope, knowing it's a question of two big partnerships to overhaul that. At Hyderabad in January, India had a lead of 190 when England started batting again. Their third innings score of 420 set India a challenging target of 231. They were bowled out for 202.

With the pitch in good condition, New Zealand, then, knew they wanted more runs in the bank to play with. What they were after was something bigger than 175; something in the region of 325-350.